xwing_miniaturesfandomcom-20200214-history
Common Terms
These are common terms used in the x-wing community to describe different fleet designs, individual ships, strategies, or other common concepts. Action Economy "Action Economy" is a player-made term, based on the idea of getting the most benefit out of the action step (via free actions or triggered effects that would normally take an action). Ships that get more are said to have a "good" or "above average" action economy. Sample Builds with good Action Economy: Scum: 4-LOM with Advanced Sensors and Outlaw Tech. When 4-LOM chooses a red maneuver he can still take an action, will acquire a free focus token and (if he ends near an enemy ship) can pass off his stress token in the end phase. Imperial: Soontir Fel or Darth Vader with Push The Limit is an effective source of action economy. Fel can boost, then use Push The Limit to evade and get a focus from the stress token given by Push The Limit. Vader can effectively perform 4 actions. Rebels: For any ship with an Astromech slot, BB-8 improves action economy, especially when combined with Push The Limit effectively allowing the ship to take a barrel roll, and then perform two actions (provided it takes a green maneuver). Other Cards: Attanni Mindlink is another source of good to excellent action economy, particularly with Manaroo. Blocking Blocking is when a low pilot skill ship flies into the path of a higher pilot skill ship intentionally to deny it its full maneuver. You can read an FFG article that discusses the strategy here. Effects of blocking: * Bumping your ship will deny the opponent their action. ** Without a focus and/or evade token, many aces can become quite delicate, or at least less damaging for a round. With the recent errata, this includes TIE Defenders with TIE/x7. ** This also prevents a ship from boosting or barrel-rolling into an advantageous position (e.g. range 1 for the extra die or Fearlessness, and/or rolling out of arc). * Stop the opponent in a potentially compromising position. ** For example, they may be left at range 1 of a ship with Advanced Proton Torpedoes (when they meant to fly out of range), or out of range of a support effect like Fleet Officer. ** You could leave the enemy overlapping an asteroid that they would have otherwise flown past safely. * Bumping cancels the 180 degree turn of a K-Turn or Segnor's Loop, and could cancel the rotation on a Tallon Roll if no valid position is possible. This can be very disabling for a ship that's trying to joust, as it leaves them stressed and unable to re-engage for one or more rounds. It can at least inconvenience TIE Defenders when they fail their joust. * The ship that caused the bump is usually safe from attacks from the bumping ship, because touching ships cannot attack each other without special exceptions. This does not apply to effects like Feedback Array or EMP Device, however, and a blocking ship can actually use such cards to harm the ship they blocked. * Blocking can create bumping chains, where one ship failing to complete its maneuver compromises the maneuvers of one or many ships activating after it. This can deny a lot of enemy actions, and pile ships into a frustrating mess that requires special planing to exit next round. The threat of bumping chains can be especially bad for ships that want to fly in formation, especially when they need to joust. Blocking can be combined with upgrades and pilots like Anti-Pursuit Lasers, Ion Projector, Unkar Plutt (Pilot), etc. Intelligence Agent + Navigator can allow a blocker to see their target's maneuver and adjust their own to more easily ensure a block. However this isn't necessary to be effective. Often multiple cheap blockers (like Academy Pilot) are just as good as something sophisticated, if not better. The threat of blocking can affect your opponent's choices to your advantage, even if they dodge the block. Unkar Plutt with Intelligence Agent, Pattern Analyzer, and Spacetug Tractor Array can wreak havoc on the opponent's planned maneuvers. However, simple & cheap ships like Academy Pilot, Cartel Spacer, Binayre Pirate, Bandit Squadron Pilot, and Prototype Pilot do well for their price. A cheap large ship like Contracted Scout or Manaroo covers more area, and a jumpmaster can barrel roll into position to block very effectively. Counter-Strategies The most important rule is to use awareness + unpredictability. Keeping activation order in mind and thinking about which ships may try to block you is important to avoid surprise blocks that leave you vulnerable. Staying unpredictable makes it harder for your foe to guess your maneuver and disrupt it. Some ships or fleets are more block-tolerant (less inconvenienced when blocked). * Blocking does not prevent certain effects, like the free Focus action of "Night Beast", or being granted free actions (e.g. Squad Leader). * Attanni Mindlink can make a fleet much more block-tolerant by spreading a focus token from any ship that managed to acquire one. * Turreted ships are less inconvenienced by blocking, as getting their intended orientation is not necessary to attack a target. They are much less disrupted by failing to k-turn. * Cards like Predator, Expertise and Lone Wolf can help a ship stay effective even after losing its action. Imperial: An example ship that discourages blockers is Captain Oicunn, optionally with Dauntless. Such a ship benefits from a collision, instead of trying to avoid it. Scum: Unkar Plutt (pilot) and BoShek (crew) are some example ways to punish or disrupt ships that block you. Rebel: "Zeb" Orrelios (Crew) allows attacking and eliminating troublesome blockers. Arvel Crynyd also has this ability, but is less generally useful. Stresshog A "Stresshog" is a ship that doesn't mind the limitations put on by stress tokens, or one that can remove them more easily. Sample Stresshog Builds: Scum Drea Renthal with R4-B11. On the first turn possible Drea wants to acquire a target lock. When she attacks, she spends it to reroll her attack dice, uses her ability and gains a stress token to acquire a target lock. This allows her to use the newly acquired target lock for R4-B11, making the defender reroll defence dice. If Drea piles on a lot of stress, she will need to be sure to switch her target lock before her target dies, or she risks being unable to continue using her ability. Palob Godalhi with TLT, Zuckuss and Wired. Palob takes on stress with Zuckuss to reroll the enemy's evade results. This ensures that Wired is triggered on future attack rolls, to reroll focus results. His ability to steal a focus token will slightly lower an enemy's attack power at close range, and the token he steals helps his own defense rolls. Imperial Captain Yorr with two Inspiring Recruits. His pilot ability can redirect up to three stress tokens from friendly ships to himself. After pulling a green maneuver he and the two inspiring recruits remove 3 stress. Rebel Tycho Celchu with A-Wing Test Pilot, Rage, Push The Limit, and Experimental Interface. Tycho's pilot ability allows him to ignore stress tokens for the purpose of actions, so over the course of the game he will accumulate many stress tokens and will only be hindered when it comes to red maneuvers. Rage gives Tycho the ability to accumulate an unprecedented number of stress tokens while keeping his damage up, by effectively focusing and target locking with one action, and using Push The Limit to boost and evade, helping with his survivability by arc dodging and boosting his defensive rolls. Proton Rockets is another option for Tycho, allowing him to deal large amounts of damage when most needed. Keyan Farlander with FCS, Stay on Target, B-Wing/E2, and Hera Syndulla (Crew). Keyan can ignore the stress he builds up and no longer needs to take actions; instead he relies on FCS to provide locks, and his pilot ability to focus his attack dice (using the very stress he's building up as pseudo-focus tokens). Hera allows him to continue taking red maneuvers, and with Stay on Target he can change direction or even k-turn in response to enemy movements. Other Cards Applicable to Stress Hogs "Chopper" (Crew) Category:Content